World Youth Day USA Guides Stateside Pilgrimage Leaders Guide | Page 60

The call to be Catholic

The call to mercy and being merciful

Part of being Catholic is recognizing that we

The primary theme of the international World

are a part of something bigger. To be able to

Youth Day in Kraków should permeate

trace our origins back to our Lord Jesus

everything in a stateside experience. This

Christ himself, back to the Twelve Apostles

theme, “Blessed are the merciful, for they

and original disciples, and to see the vast

shall receive mercy” (Mt 5:7) calls all people

history and people that our faith links us to

to understand better the concepts of mercy,

can be a humbling and exciting experience.

compassion, love, and forgiveness: how God

World Youth Day is a great moment to

has been merciful in participants’ lives and the

experience that reality of being Catholic.

degrees to which mercy and compassion have
been integrated into the pilgrims’ actions in

Being part of a stateside experience can help

their everyday lives.

remind a pilgrim that he or she is a part of a
universal (catholic) Church and that our God,

The notion (and ultimately, the experience)

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, calls all people to

of Divine Mercy (beyond all understanding)

a deeper connection and communion with

should challenge stateside pilgrims to reflect

him and others precisely through his Church.

on how they may or may not be expressing
the Father’s mercy in their relationships and

A successful stateside gathering will open

encounters – and to see where they can make

local pilgrims to the recognition of the

changes to better pass on that mercy to

vastness of the Church, but also to the joy and

others. Whether on a personal, community, or

excitement of knowing that the family and

civic level, there should be a takeaway that

community of the global Church is over one

there is always room in one’s life and

billion strong. Even though stateside events

relationships for greater mercy and love.

won’t have an international component, a
larger Catholic gathering like this can still help

The call to live in Christ

pilgrims to recognize that, despite differences

World Youth Day invites us to embrace more

in language, location, and culture, there is

deeply the call to live in Christ daily. In

great unity in the various inculturations and

particular, two aspects of our relationship

traditions of the Catholic faith, expressed in

with the Lord might be fruitfully examined

the Universal Church, which is one, holy,

after World Youth Day. The first is the depth

catholic, and apostolic.

and closeness of our relationship with God.
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